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06/12/2016

Origami stars and chrimbly counting 6

Day 6 and it continues...! Our summer holidays were delightfully filled with gentle skies and vast seas as we camped on the small and sandy island of Uist. The lane near our campsite had this sign struggling to keep its head up above the sea of grasses and wild flowers that joyfully filled the field and tumbled down on to the lane edge.

Origami stars

(Be warned - it is a long post and an incurably addictive craft!)

You will need:

Time

ready access to tea/coffee

A podcast or radio

Scrap practise paper

Finished item paper (I used sheets from a book that had been destined for the paper skip)

Ruler

Scissors

Tea-spoon

Hole punch

String or threads

Time (I may have mentioned this already)

Part 1 - Creating your pentagon

Either follow these instructions or follow this link which takes you to a template, which you can then print and cut as you need :)

1. Firstly, using your practise paper, ensure you have a square piece to start with. To achieve this, fold one of the corners up to meet the opposite edge, forming a triangle. Cut off the excess paper alongside the triangle, unfold your triangle to reveal a square.

2. Fold your square, in half, from the bottom upwards to the top.

3. Fold the top left corner down to the bottom, unfold.
4. Fold the bottom left corner up to the top, unfold.

5. This folding provides a central 'point'.
6. Take the bottom RIGHT corner towards this point and fold over.

7. Still with the same piece of folded paper, refold, backwards, the top layer of paper in half, see photograph on the left

8. Take the BOTTOM LEFT corner and fold upwards toward top right, against the newly created edge. See the photograph on the right.

9. Flip the paper over. You are now working on the 'back'.

10. Fold in half where I have marked the dark line

11. Following the edge of the top layer of paper (see central photograph) cut off the excess of paper

Ta-da!you now have a pentagon. Well done you! Now, let's get on with ....

Part 2 - Making stars!

1. Place your pentagon nice side down.

2. Refold and open each creased line - use the back of your teaspoon to press down (did you wonder why this was on the list?) helps make a nice tight fold.

3.Fold the straight edges upwards to the folds you have just made, use the teaspoon here again, you will need nice crisp folds. Unfold again. Turn the pentagon and repeat this folding five times.

Your paper will then have new creases as per the photograph below.

4. The next step is a little fiddly (even for an octopus). You need to fold in the left edge along one of the new creases. Then, fold up the bottom edge while you pull the corner of your pentagon to the left. (See photo) Press this new fold flat.

5. Unfold. Turn one fifth so you now have a new base, repeat the above step until you have gone completely round your pentagon. Your pentagon will now have additional creases - see below photograph...

6. With your pentagon open and flat, pinch all 5 corners as you push them towards the centre. They will, with a bit of 'help', start to twist gently to a star shape.

7. Lie your star down and tighten the folds with the back of your spoon.

8.Flip the star over - notice the mini pentagon?

9. Fold the top point of the mini pentagon to the central point (see picture above), press down firmly
10. Turn your star and repeat action, do this five times in total.

Look lovely. Had two attempts and failed at the end of step one. Cannot get my paper to turn into a nice pentagon!!!!! Will have another try later when I have more time. Maybe we should have a workshop next week.😀

I really enjoy looking at your tutorial and imagining someone else doing it - I know my limits. They are lovely, though, and I have sneakily bookmarked this so I may be able to come back to it some time. Thank you for sharing. x